Kia Keeping A Bit Sheepish

Newcastle Herald

Saturday November 17, 2007

Brent Davison

KIA has thrown out a teaser ahead of January's Detroit Motor Show, revealing it will have a new, production-ready, mid-sized SUV named Borrego on display ahead of a mid-2008 American launch.

Borrego's detail are scant but pictures show a Mitsubishi Pajero/Toyota Prado-sized vehicle with room for up to seven and built using a separate ladder-frame chassis.

Apparently named after the bighorn sheep native to California's biggest desert state park, Borrego has been designed particularly with the US market in mind. While there is no information on what sort of transmission or drive-train layout will be used, Kia says a V6 (probably a 3.8-litre version of the Sorento's engine) will be available and a V8 could be in the car's future.

How big a V8? Unknown, but probably a 4.6-litre unit derived from the engine used for the Kue concept car a couple of years back. Power outputs? No one is saying.

Kia says the styling is derived from the Mesa concept shown at Detroit in January 2005. Borrego, incidentally, is bigger than the company's popular Sorento model.

Will it come to Australia? The company's local arm is staying quiet about that; but if it does decide to bring Borrego here it would most likely not be before 2009.

© 2007 Newcastle Herald

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